Loved and Lost
by Lastchaos Darknoman
Summary: 'Whoever said "it's better to have loved and lost than to have never even loved at all" was full of bull' Jaune thought as his partner had yet to return from a simple hunt during their fourth year at Beacon. The rest of her team and team RWBY was sent out to investigate were her hunt was located and find out what was keeping the young huntress.


**A.N* Hello guys this is my first hurt/loss fanfic so I hope it's not too bad. I got this idea at like four in the morning so why not write when you can't sleep eh? I hope the grammar and sentence structure isn't too bad as I wrote this on little sleep. Without further adieu here it is.**

Jaune was inconsolable. No one knew what to say or do to get him to at least say something. They all had felt what he was feeling now, but he was taking it harder than the rest of them. To him it was as if light had lost its luminescence, words had lost all meaning, and food had lost all taste. Even sleep held no safety from his feelings. All pleasant dreams he had were replaced by nightmares. Each one more gruesome and haunting than the last. It had been two weeks since she had left on that solo mission to clear an area of rambunctious beowolves. Pyrrha had gone missing and all evidence leads to the conclusion of her death.

_*two weeks before*_

It was their fourth year of Beacon and students were able to accept contracts for hunts to provide an easier transition after graduation. It was during one of these low class hunts -presumably misgraded by whoever offered it- that Pyrrha had not returned from. Team RWBY and the rest of JNPR were dispatched to look into what happened. All they found was a torn red sash she would wear around her waist and her buckler Akouo. There was no other sign of the amazon as they searched and soon they were ordered back to Beacon. Jaune more or less had to be dragged back as he refused to quit looking for her.

Once the report submitted by Ruby was looked at Pyrrha was presumed dead and both teams would receive time off from classes to grieve for their friend. Tears had been shed, condolences given by anyone they saw, and time to deal with it in their own way was given. Soon, all had accepted the fact and moved on with their lives knowing that it was the risk of their job. That is except for Jaune. He rarely talked and slept; and even did not attend classes when their grieving period was over.

It was not until night when his teammates returned to their dorm and found that their leader was missing. Walking out into the darkness, face set in a scowl Jaune left to hunt those who took his partner, his _girlfriend. _

Ren and Nora woke early with the sound of an opening door. With weary eyes they turned on the light and looked over their leader who had returned. His face was smeared with dirt, eyes bloodshot, and several new scratches on his armour. These were the least disturbing factors of his appearance. His clothes were dyed a new color, _red_. It was recognizable immediately where he had been and what he had been doing. Both tried to talk to him about it and convince him to stop before he hurt himself. They received no response.

Jaune attended classes the next day with his team, though he rarely paid attention his face was always the same. Lifeless, as if all emotion had been drained from him. During meals he barely ate, and continued his silence. After his last class of the day he stood and calmly walked to his dorm room. After slipping into his armour he again left not to be seen again until early morning. This routine continued for days. Into the weekend, and back into the beginning of a new week.

By the middle of the second week no one tried to stop him anymore. Ren and Nora along with team RWBY had tried to get him to stay and not leave but to no avail. His grades had been slipping and even the professors began to get worried for the young Arc boy.

He once again ventured out into the darkness of the Emerald Forest. As he walked he found his path unguarded. No grimm dared to cross his path again in this part of the forest. Packs of Beowolves and Ursa would swarm him, but none would make it out. The grimm in this area had learned to fear the hunter and not to cross his path. That is not true for the deeper parts of the forest however. Packs would come and go, each time with less numbers than they had before and without slowing down his trek through their forest.

Countless grim had fallen before him as his "walk" through the forest progressed. He soon became exhausted and his vision began to fade in and out. His clouded mind began to play tricks on him. His vision would fade in and he would catch a glimpse of pale skin or red hair retreating behind a tree. When he would go to investigate he would find nothing. No footprints, no lingering smells, and no clues for what he was looking for.

With a sigh Jaune slumped against a tree to rest his weary eyes and try to stop the hallucinations. His eyes closed, he turned to his aura to be his eyes and ears. Sending it out in waves as a sort of makeshift sonar he could accurately paint the landscape and see what was coming. Soon he received a disturbance on the edge of the waves he sent out. Standing and facing the disturbance with sword and shield drawn and extended he moved forward to investigate.

He moved around a tree and saw a bush begin to rustle. It sounded like a large grim was tearing it's way through the underbrush. Getting into his combat stance, Jaune prepared to face whatever came out to fight him. It was a squirrel. Just a small little squirrel caused that much ruckus. Jaune chuckled and put away his weapons after the creature scurried off. He turned to return to his tree to continue his rest before he would head back to Beacon. But, before he could get two steps away from where the squirrel came out a rustling came again.

Turning around to see what he expected was the squirrel again, Jaune couldn't be farther from the truth. What he saw made his throat tighten and mind go blank. A pale, weak, staggering Pyrrha came out of the bush with torn clothing and armor, her hair tangled and knotted with twigs and leaves intertwined. Jaune was at a loss for words. all he could do was watch as she limped her way over to him dragging her spear behind her. Only when she was standing in front of him did she drop her spear and fall forward into his arms unconscious.

Jaune caught her limp body and shifted quickly to pick up her spear and set it on top of her picking her up bridal style and walking the direction he knew Beacon was in. He looked at her and could not even hope to fathom what kind of hell she had been through in all of this time. How she could have even survived as long as she did amazed him and at the same time it was as if he expected her to be able to.

It was early in the morning when he finally arrived at Beacon with Pyrrha still in her arms. Students were milling about now before class getting breakfast and running early errands. Everyone moved out of the way as they saw Jaune carrying someone they presumed was dead. One group of girls ran to tell the other members of JNPR about what they saw. Jaune maintained the face he wore for weeks now as he carried his girlfriend to the infirmary and handed her over to a group of frantic nurses. Once she was in the hands of people that could help her, Jaune went to the waiting room and fell exhausted into a chair. As he closed his eyes to rest his mind began to wander. ' I found her, I can't believe I found her. I'm going to have to talk to Ozpin about not letting my team take solo missions anymore. It's for their safety after all. I need to talk to Pyrrha also, I can't live with losing her again. Whoever came up with that "its better to have loved and lost" bull needs to be shot. This is the shock that I needed I guess. As soon as she recovers i'll do it then. I'll make her mine. When she recovers i'll propose...On second thought i'll need to get things ready first. OK I can do this, i'll make the preparations tomorrow.

**A.N* Yeah you could probably have guessed where that one was going huh? Well it was fun to write at least. Hope you enjoyed!**

**Lastchaos**


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